Wow, talk about trying to cut a wide swath with a small scythe, you pose a lot of questions that will require a great deal of time to answer and where any professional like an Agronomist would charge a large fee.

My caveat, when dealing with raw land on the outskirts of San Rafael make sure the right for you to drill a well is in the DEED. Obtaining the right to dig a well is not longer a given and obtaining a "Permit" can require many many, months unless you are one of those guys who doesn't believe in having a permit.

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Tom thanks for responding,

This can be a nice learning curve and i don't expect any less, just don't want to be misinformed. I already know that growing almonds can be lucrative if done right and doable for that area.

So the right to drill should literally be stated in the escritura of the potential property? or can i make that amendment through my lawyer after i buy the land? and what does it depend on? some properties do not have the right to drill because of their location?

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expatotree,

The "Right to drill" is often stated on the Survey. When I had my water well dug in 2012 it ran 70 meters deep (average) and cost US$75,000 back when the pesos was about 1 US Dollar = AR 4.0 pesos. My well is commercial (10" diameter) and produces more than 350,000 liters per hour.

Water well permits can be difficult to impossible to obtain, first because some corrupt Argentine Administrator a few years back took bribes and granted the rights to drill wells in many area where it has been illegal to so so for decades and secondly because there has been water shortages due to low Andes snowmelt.

I would never buy Blanco land without hard evidence that you can dig a well and then verify that the "right" is still viable and exercisable. Then I would have at least two bids by legitimate licensed Well Drilling Companies. As a reference the San Rafael Well Drilling Company that bid on my project wanted 75% more than the Mendoza Well Drilling Company I eventually chose. Also, and a big factor is electricity, e.g. 3-Phase electricity.
Water well submersible pumps necessitate 3-Phase electricity. If you land is remote and available 3-Phase electricity is miles away it can cost you tens of thousand more US Dollars. I am not trying to discourage you but there is a reason why raw land miles from the center of San Rafael is priced at US$500 an acre because it has no water and no electricity.

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There is a small almond grove close to my place in Las Paredes and my worker says that it has been in operation for about five years. They have lost crop after crop from the cold weather here and have never had a product. I would suggest you research the area here in San Rafael for the warmest climate possible to avoid the same problems.

Mike

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Tom,

I'm surprised to hear that Mendoza with its wine industry still hasn't put proper controls in place to safeguard its water resources, california has worse water problems and yet they are managing just fine with over a million acres of almond production.

i would certainly not want to bribe anyone to get a drilling permit.

so is there a low water table now due to illegal extraction of excess water in that area?

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Mike,

Las Paredes is 1100 feet higher than La Escandinava which is north from Bowen (currently an area of interest).

This much elevation difference can translate to 1-2C degrees cooler air in Las Paredes making it hard on fruit formation in the spring.

San Rafael in general does have almond production going, i just don't know how much of it is producing at full potential, if at all. Not very much information is available on the internet. Technically northern Patagonia Steppe region should produce quality almond, but then elevation differences make it tricky.

Plus I suppose the change in weather in recent years does not encourage people to plant almond trees.

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Expatotree,


I am not saying the Mendoza Province does not have its “Permit Dept.” in order and running efficiently, it probably is working smoothly.

And no amount of shady Permits allowed due to bribery would have a large impact on the water tables. However, the years of low snow fall and subsequent low snow melt and water can dramatically impact the water tables and this includes the water tables of San Rafael.

What I am trying to say is when I submitted my Well Permit it took many months to get approved because the top dog for granting Well Permits had been indicted and forced to step down. Everyone below him was afraid to sign anything including many pending Well Permits.

Then, because Christina had made illegal almost all imports including submersible water pumps I was scrambling trying to find alternatives in Argentina.

Personally I would not buy raw land without an existing and legal and properly operating water well (properly operating equates to a licensed well drilling company running many tests.

If the water well is illegal, and there are many, is a subject that deserves a whole separate chapter.

And don’t forget your electricity source, where is it coming from (could me miles away) and at what cost.

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Tom,

The property I'm currently considering in La Escandinava does claim to have trifasica service at the front, although i guess i should confirm that with the power company? The guy is also claiming to have derecho a riego as well as an allowance to drill, although again like you've suggested i have to look at his papers really well or even get a lawyer to do that for me.

But the main concern is of course the water table. I could put aside money for a 6 inch well but if water yields are to diminished over the following years, i might then regret investing in the first place.

Would the water problem be your main motivation to get out of the area? What are the long term prospects in regards to water rights there, what's your gut feeling? Is this why plum orchards are selling out?

P.S i'm not aiming to do mass scale 100 hectare production, for starters i could do up to 3 ha, and later expand if all goes according to plan. I'm just trying to see what factors are currently impacting people's decisions to get out of their production, at first i thought this had to do with their own mismanagement and inefficiencies as well as higher labor costs, and maybe i was wrong.

Thanks

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Expatotree,

I asked my long time local who is my vineyard Manager about Almonds and he said he didn't know anyone who was raising almonds. He does know one guy who is growing Pistachios in San Rafael and from the 2016 crop supposedly received AR 250 pesos per kilo.

I'm not saying the San Rafael water table has decreased on a permanent basis, rather that some years it is low as a result of up to a 50% decrease in snowmelt runoff from the Andes. When this occurs the local authorities panic.

I have three sources of water and feel quite comfortable with them.

If you are looking at raw land that will require the drilling of a new well I would bet it will cost nearly US$100,000 cash up front. You are better off buying an Olive Grove or Orchard or Vineyard that is mature with proven results. My 5-acre Malbec vineyards that I planted in 2009/2010 are all positive cash flowing.

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Tom,


There is a strong domestic demand for almonds, which by the way isn't going to be supplied for any time soon, the problem is with people rushing into it without proper planning i think, so they end up with diseased orchards and low fruit formation due to poor polination and unprevented frost damage, and also perhaps due to natural freak cold snaps in the spring that no one can unticipate, climate change does have a play in all this, almonds are delicate and argentina does not have a true meditrenial climate for it, but imported varieties do exist for various climate zones within argentina, as far down as latitude 40, neuquen city areas and slightly below that.

Pistachios too are fantastic, probably just as promising in terms of domestic demand, but a 50% decrease in snowmelt does sound like an alarm to me, what if it reaches 75% and then 90% some 15 years later, i would not want to run my pump dry because the water table has dropped to a point of no return. This is one issue that has to be evaluated very closely, although san rafael technically should not have an issue with water considering its nanural proximity to rivers and fairly good annual precipitation, no? in comparison to neuquen where they grow apples and cherries, there should be way more water underground in san rafael area, let's say surface water is not as important.

Buy a ready to go plantation with water source in place you say? I'm sceptical that this is the way to do it for someone who wants to build a sound production grove and train his employees to work efficiently, yes i know argentines aren't made for work no matter how well i might want to pre plan my business endeavor but picking up after someone else can prove to be a bad scenario, not knowing what condition the well is in, whether the books are cooked or not, if trees are diseased or not, true production yields etc, i'd rather go small and slow until i can get any bigger and hopefully profitable too, but either way its a risk to take just like with everything else nowadays and meantime, i'd at least have fun doing it, did you have fun at your Malbec grapevines? Why did you decide to not manage it yourself?

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Expatotree,

Building a vineyard has been both exciting and challenging to say the least. The reason I do not manage my vineyards is because I am in the USA 6 months a year and I am not going to do 5 1/2 days a week backbreaking vineyard work to save US$750 a month which is what I would pay one Argentine worker.

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Expatotree, Building a vineyard has been both exciting and challenging to say the least. The reason I do not manage my vineyards is because I am in the USA 6 months a year and I am not going to do 5 1/2 days a week backbreaking vineyard work to save US$750 a month which is what I would pay one Argentine worker.

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